Lora and the Heart
by Acies de Camena
Summary: Some jobs...just shouldn't be taken. With Lora captured, will she submit and become a minion of the Dungeon, or find her way free.   Rated M, the last chapter was too Dark to leave it a T rated story. Chapter Edits inc.
1. Wait, What?

Lora had been approached almost a month before by an older, charismatic man with a black mustache and goatee grown and trimmed like you would expect to see on a picture of Satan. He was very calm and very self-assured, just shy of being cocky. He had approached and hired the famous explorer to search for a relic called the _Dungeon Heart_. This man, who called himself Alverid, warned her that this relic was, according to the legends, protected by demonic creatures and powerful magic.

Now Lora had been told these kinds of things before. Most times, it's just hocus pocus, but there have been those other occasions. She spent a couple weeks researching the area that the entrance was supposed to be, then a couple weeks preparing, and then she found herself walking down a dim, torch lit passage descending into the earth.

It was nearly a mile in when Lora came to a branching of the passage, forward, left, and right in perfect angles. All three directions were sealed with a solid wood door reinforced with steel bands that wrapped around the entire door. Before stepping into the area between the three doors, Lora glanced around the area and immediately noticed the bottom of a glass vial in the ceiling.

With a flick of her wrist, Lora extended the collapsible baton strapped to her forearm and carefully prodded at the stones on the ground between the doors. Finding the loose stone, she adjusted her angle and pushed down, depressing the stone into the ground. The instant Lora heard the click, she jerked the baton back and watched a smaller rock break through the glass vial and heard the sounds of acid as the liquid contained within splattered the ground. Silently she waited until the sizzling had ended, then tested the rest of the stones before stepping forward to begin checking the doors for traps.

Satisfied with the doors, Lora opened the door on the left and began to travel down the new opened corridor. Twenty feet down the left passage, the hall opened into a thirty foot by thirty foot room with racks of polished metal weapons of medieval design. Swords, axes, halberds, and crossbows lined the walls as well as several suits of armor. Walking up to the first rack, Lora pulled a curved scimitar from the scabbard and examined the weapon.

Quietly she whispered to herself, "No rust, and no dust. The leather scabbard is…new." Suddenly she realized that the quiet dungeon was not supposed to be this quiet. Glancing around again, she saw a creature that was so ugly it was cute hiding behind a bench. The creature was only about three and a half feet tall, dark skin the color of brown, tanned leather, with a large pack strapped to its back and huge black eyes. The eyes reminded her of a horses eyes, where the pupil was simply so large that the rest of the eye was impossible to see. The creature was watching her intently and then squeaked and began to shiver when it realized Lora had seen it.

Squatting low, Lora held out her hand to the creature and whispered, "Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you."

Suddenly a door on the far side of the room was thrown open and one of the ugliest men she had ever seen came strutting in. Once it was closer, Lora realized that this thing couldn't possibly be human. Its jaw was more pronounced with a pair of short tusk like teeth jutting up from the bottom jaw. Its nose was short and wide with long slits for nostrils, the ears were long and filled with hair, and the skin was darkened gray colored. This thing was humanoid, but definitely no human.

"Ho!" It bellowed out, "What Mistress doing in Guard Room?"

Calmly Laura stood and faced it, "Simply looking around."

This seemed to satisfy the guard, and it grabbed an axe off the rack, rested it on his shoulder and began to walk towards the door. Suddenly it stopped and turned to face Lora, "Mistress is dressed funny."

Lora replied with a smirk, "My leathers are being cleaned."

"Oh." It said simply and turned back to resume its patrol.

Lora sighed as she watched the large humanoid walk away, and then turned back to the small creature she had seen before. There it was, more out in the open, standing next to a bench looking at here expectantly.

"Can you take me to the Heart?" she asked softly.

The creatures head bobbed then it turned and its short legs were suddenly pumping quickly as it shot through the room to the door on the other side of the room. At the door, the little thing turned back and waited. Lora ran quickly to catch up, and then followed behind the creature as it zoomed through the tunnels.

With the practiced ease of the experienced explorer that she is, Lora memorized the path that the critter took her. As they travelled, she saw many creatures that simply could not be understood. A large lizard that looked like an overgrown salamander, some huge, fat, round thing with horns sticking out of the side of its head that had no legs and used it's long arms to move, a very lithe looking man with onyx skin, white hair, and pointed ears. Another odd thing that she noticed as they travelled was that the further in they got, she could feel a deep rhythmic pounding sound like a huge drum. It took a few moments before she realized that the pounding was like that of a heart beat.

It was several rooms and several passages later that her guide finally opened a large double door. The heart beat was almost too much to bear now, and then Lora saw why. In the middle of a large upraised platform was a huge globe surrounded by gold ornamentation that held it just off the ground. Inside the globe a red glow pulsed with the Heart Beat of the dungeon. She looked at the large globe simply mystified at its size.

Around one the left side of the Heart stepped Alvarid, his facial hair still shaped like the Devils, but now his eyes glimmered with an inner light. His business suit had been replaced by a blood robe with gold embroidery symbols and the shoulders of the robe were even shaped to arc up to resemble spikes.

Behind her, Lora heard the foot fall of something large, very large, and sheathed in metal. Turning slowly, she looked up two feet and into the eyes of a demon. Nothing else could be used to describe it. Standing eight feet tall at least, red thick skin, metal covered feet, an evil smile that revealed a mouth full of six inch canine teeth, yellow glowing eyes, and a set of horns that extended its height a full foot further, and in one hand it carried a blood stained scythe.

Behind her, Lora heard Alvarid laugh maniacally. "Welcome, '_Tomb Raider_.'


	2. Time to go!

Leaping away and from the demon and turning in midair, Lora drew both her .45 caliber pistols and fired simultaneously. Black blood sprayed from the shoulder of the demon at the same time as its head rocked backwards as the two lead bullets struck home.

Hitting the ground on her back, Lora pulled her knees up and her momentum rolled her over her shoulder and onto one knee and both guns spit lead again, this time both bullets finding homes in the chest of Alvarid. Lora started to smirk as she watched Alvarid collapse to the ground, but then she saw that the demon was still standing. Her eyes only moved to look at the beast and saw that the skin on the demons head was torn, but the skull itself was whole, and the creature was using its claws to dig the bullet out of its own shoulder.

Lora instantly recognized that if it was that damn tough, she probably shouldn't play with it any longer. Turning quickly, she darted toward the door that she knew would lead her out of this crypt. The demon, realizing that she was trying to escape, took a swipe at her at chest level with its scythe. Dropping into a low roll, the heard the blade pass over her with a whisper and as she came back to her feet, Lora whipped one gun to the side where the demon stood and fired once without looking. She knew where the target once and smiled when she heard the demon roar as the bullet took it in the leg. Then Lora at a dead run through the halls.

A voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time commanded, "Stop the woman."

Rounding another corner, Lora slammed her shoulder into the wooden door, snapping it off the hinges and barreled into the room. In the room stood three of the lithe onyx skinned people she had seen on her way to the Dungeon Heart. All three reacted instantly to her presence and reached for crossbows they had on their shoulders. Lora was quicker though, since her weapons were already drawn. The echo of the gunfire resounded in her ears, but there were then three bodies on the ground.

To the other side of the room and through the open door there, Lora turned two corners and found her way down the hall blocked by one of the fat, round, red creatures with the horns. The thing was most definitely able to block a hallway with ease. Lora never stopped her run though, firing six shots into the creature as she charged it. The fat monstrosity collapsed on itself, dead where it had been. Leaping over the body, Lora hit the ground, rolled, and was off again.

Three more rooms was all that she had to go through and as she burst into the first of three rooms, Lora instinctively fired at the body in front of her. What she wasn't prepared for was the sound of the bullet reflecting off of the steel plate armor it wore. A quick dart of her eyes took in three bodies, all wearing heavy steel plate armor and wielding large swords. One stood directly in front of her door out. Taking a split second to aim, two more rounds fired off and though the bullets ricocheted again, the man in the armor fell to the ground, knocked unconscious by the impact of the bullets on his helm.

The second 'knight' lifted his shield, just in time to deflect the bullets coming for him, and quick stepped forward, slashing out at Lora. The agile woman leapt to the side and the sword slipped by her stomach by inches.

Ever aware of her weapons, Lora thumbed the clip release on both guns and as the empty clips fell, she slapped the hilts of her guns to the two clips on her belt in their quick reload spot. Ducking under another slash, her thumbs found the slide release and the automatic weapons snapped back into ready. Another dodge of the sword, and the report of the guns echoed through the room again, this time, one finding a knee joint and the other bouncing off the plated thigh.

The knight bellowed and fell to the ground, crippled. Turning to the last warrior, Lora saw that the knight wasn't approaching, wasn't threatening. "Move." Lora commanded simply.

From behind her, Lora heard a feminine chuckle. Before Lora could even turn, she heard the crackle of electricity and was blasted off her feet, landing on her stomach a foot away from the knight. Lora 's body twitched as the blast of electricity shorted her nerves out like a shot from a hundred-thousand volt taser. She felt someone put their foot under her and roll her onto her back. Standing above her was the demon she had shot in the room with the Dungeon Heart. The wound on his shoulder and head already healed over. Standing with her body draped over the demon was a woman that looked equal parts beautiful, insane, and dangerous. Her body was wrapped tightly with leather so tight and so polished, that it looked like latex.

"The Keeper is right." The woman purred as she ran her fingers over the demons chest. "This one is definitely a true prize."

Forcing her body to follow her commands, Lora suddenly shook off the effects of the taser and swiftly rolled away from the two, her eyes locking onto her pistols, six feet away. Again the woman chuckled and pointed her finger and Lora. Electricity sparked from the womans' fingertip and slammed into Lora, this time blasting the Tomb Raider into unconsciousness.


	3. Lora meets the Mistresses

Lora woke with a start. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim room, but that was not really a good thing she quickly decided. The Tomb Raider was strapped to the top of a wooden structure shaped like a giant 'X' with an extended center to help support the body, her arms and legs spread out to the four points of the 'X' and held firmly in place with thick leather straps. It was while she was looking at these straps that Lora realized she was stripped bare. The Tomb Raider let out a deep sigh. She _hated_ being restrained, even in the bedroom.

Lifting her head, Lora could see other devices of torture surrounding her, but she was currently the only occupant. There were the typical items of course, whips, ball gags, chains, a couple iron maidens, a stretching rack, crows cage.

There were a couple of odd ones though that caused Lora's eyebrows to raise. One looked like a small tent that could only maybe one adult if they were on their knees with their head sticking out of the round hole on the top.

Another was an 'X' like the one Laura was on, but this 'X' was hanging on the wall, made of steel, and surrounded by a big circle, making it look like a wheel with four large spokes. The Center of this device was placed on a large gear, making it look more and more like a wheel. At the bottom though was a large tub, and at first glance, Laura thought the tub was full of water. Inward, Lora scoffed. A drowing wheel wasn't so impressive. Then after looking again, she realized that the tub looked like it was filled with gasoline. That was not good.

###############################

Lora wasn't sure exactly how much time passed, but she spent enough time in tombs and dungeons to have a good feel of how time passed, even without sunlight as a judge and it felt like a good four hours. After the first hour, she had begun to methodically flex the muscles in her extremities, forcing the blood to keep flowing and from becoming too stiff. If she was able to convince the next person to loosen a strap or make some other inane mistake, she wanted to be ready to move quickly. The most frustrating part was that her stomach would not stop growling and that made her wonder how long she had been unconscious before finding herself on the table.

With a thud, the wooden door to her right side pounded open and in walked four figures. As they walked fully into the light, Lora inwardly groaned, but forced herself to smirk anyhow. The huge, red-skinned demon was the first, followed by Alvarid, and two women, both clad in the same leather outfit she had seen when she tried to escape from this place. One woman looked to be of asian descent, but had long flame red hair pulled into an _extremely_ tight pony tail. The second woman looked American Indian, and her jet black hair was wrapped in a tight bun atop her head with a pair of thin steel spikes holding it in place.

As they closed in on the table, the Demon looked down at Lora and returned her smirk, then turned to Alvarid. "Will she run Warlock?"

Alvarid spoke _something_ that Lora could not understand in a language that she did not recognize. As he finished, a ball of light appeared in mid air, shimmering white. Then the man looked to Lora and asked, "If we release your bonds, will you run?"

"No," Lora replied quickly, but then to her amazement, the glowing white ball of energy suddenly shifted and she watch herself released from the table, and then proceed to kill all four in the room with her, then run out of the underground dungeon. The orb faded.

Alvarid turned to the demon and chuckled, "Well, not right away anyways."

Alvarid then turned back to Lora, "You were baited to come here by me, because we have need of your skills, and would like you to join us on a more permanent basis."

Lora smirked, "Torture isn't the best way to get my loyalty."

Alvarid smiled in return, "Your loyalty will be bought with gold. Your will is too strong to be broken by torture."

Lora's eyebrows raised, "Then why am I naked on a torture table?"

The Demon leaned over the top of Lora and looked her in the eyes. "Entertainment."

Red, as Lora was now thinking of the red-haired woman in leather, said at the same time "Training."

Alvarid smiled, "Both actually."

Red sauntered up to the table, "The woman with me is new to our ranks, but shows great promise as a Mistress. As Alvarid says, your will may be too strong to break, but I doubt that. I've broken _many_ wills, including that of Sonya here."

Lora glanced over to the other woman in leather and saw an eager gleam in her eyes that bordered on psychotic.

"I will be using you as her training subject in the ways of torture for all its wonderful purposes, such as pain for pain's sake, gathering information, converting allegiances, and of course, pleasure." Red paused for a moment and glanced over at the demon. "Don't be too surprised if Horny here comes by occasionally to help with that last one."

Lora, who was an expert at controlling her emotions and reactions, barely showed any reaction to the threat, but Red saw the suddenly triple blink of Lora's eyes.

Red smiled at the reaction, "You are indeed a strong one. That simple sentence has broken some before the fun even started, but you didn't even say a word. No, barely a reaction at all." Red paused while the Demon "Horny" and Alvarid walked from the room, then turned back to Sonya. "Shall we get started Sonya?"

Sonya smiled eagerly, "Yes Mistress."

Red grabbed two small spikes, almost just long needles, that were sitting on a small table nearby and brought them back to the table. "Your first lesson, will be in bringing out the most from Starvation. Now take your spike like this…"

Lora watched as Red took the needle point of the spike and placed it at a position just inside Lora's elbow, then with a sudden swiftness jabbed the spike in and out through the other side. Lora winced, but the pain was actually very minimal. The spike was extremely thin and sharp, and Red knew what she was doing, made even more evident by the lack of blood flow. Red then walked around to Lora's other side and with the patience of a natural teacher, guided her student, teaching her were to place the point, how to avoid the vital arteries and veins in the arms and even the proper quick thrust to make the thrust straight and true.

After Sonya had successfully pushed her spike through after only two attempts, Lora watched the blood flowing freely from the two mistakes. Red calmly walked over to the same table she had gotten the spikes from and grabbed a small jar. Opening it, she calmly drizzled some of the fluid it contained on the two open holes. As Lora watch, the open wounds sealed instantly.

"Do not be too concerned about our subjects' loss of blood. The body will try to heal faster, thereby driving her hunger even more. Now, do you see the small holes at the top of our spikes?" Red asked her pupil. When Sonya nodded, Red handed her a single stick of incense. "Place this into the end of the spike and light it."

Sonya did as she was told, as Red lit a second incense stick that was now protruding from the end of the second spike. When the first waft of smoke hit her nose, Lora smelled roast mutton, then mixed in with that, baked apples. Instantly Lora's stomach let out a long and deep growl of hunger.

"She's not eaten now for nearly seventeen hours, bleeding slowly, and smelling the smells of our finest cooks. We'll see how this holds up." Then suddenly, in the span of an eye-blink, Red was standing next to Sonya with her fingers wrapped tightly in the trainee's hair bun, jerking her pupil sideways and leading her to another 'X' table.

"I expect perfection from my students. I expect perfection from my fellow Mistresses. Your two failed attempts to spike her have earned you some time in the Wringer." Red said with a silky iciness to her voice.

Lora watched as Sonya climbed onto one of the tables with the strange tent she had seen. Red deftly tied Sonya's arms behind her pupil's back and guided her onto the table through the open flap of the 'Wringer.' Sonya whimpered for a moment on her knees as her head was guided through the hole at the top of the 'tent.' Even the lithe Native American could barely fit inside the strange item and had to kneel and almost bow her shoulders as the flap was closed around her back. The boning of the tent was made of something that Lora didn't recognize immediately, but could tell it was strong, but flexible.

As her stomach growled more, Lora watched as Red began to pull on the boning, then push until the woman trapped within was having her head rotated in a fast and violent circle. It was only a couple of minutes later, after Lora looked away that she heard Sonya suddenly retch, then the splatter of the contents of Sonya's stomach hitting the ground.

Before the incense sticks had even burned a quarter of the way down, Sonya had been released from the 'Wringer,' and was collapsed on the ground, her body curled into a fetal position as she dry heaved without control.

"When you are under control again, clean up your mess, then return here in two hours and we'll check on our subject." Red commanded quietly and calmly.

Lora closed her eyes with a deep feeling of worry and hunger as she heard Sonya weakly whisper, "yes Mistress."


	4. Lora and the Reaper

Alvarid stood by quietly as he watched the Mistress and her pupil strap Lora's unconscious form to the Beasts' Table. He knew that most prisoners never made it to this table, but the few that did came away broken either physically, mentally, or spiritually. It all depended on Horny's mood that day. The Mistress, Alvarid knew her name but knew better than to use it, also knew that they had waited a full week to give Sonya plenty of time to work on Lora before Horny took his turn. Alvarid did not envy Lora at all. The Reaper has wanted time with her ever since she shot him in the head and the knee. Anyone who actually managed to slow Horny down ends up on his play list.

Alvarid stepped up quickly to the table as the Mistresses stepped away and shook the woman awake. Once Lora's eyes were open, he spoke quietly and quickly. "Lora, you need to stop being stubborn and you need to do in the next minute."

When the woman scoffed, he shook his head and spoke again, "You don't understand. The Mistress has not given up on breaking you, but she's decided to give Horny his turn with you."

Lora, through cracked lips, weakly whispered, "Sounds like a good time."

Alvarid snapped at her then, his patience finally giving in. "He's not going to kill you. Do you not understand that? I've never seen someone leave his table the same person."

At that moment, the Red-haired Mistress approached the table with a bucket full of water and a ladel. Gently, the woman poured water into Lora's mouth, which the Tomb Raider gratefully drank. Alvarid was silent as he watched the Mistress dab water onto Lora's cracked lips, then give the woman more to drink.

Alvarid was about to speak again when a very large red hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. "Too late Warlock."

Alvarid winced, with a look up at Horny, he turned and walked from the room.

###############################

Mitza, the top Mistress of the Dungeon, watched as the Warlock left the room, then turned back to the Demon, nodded and then walked to stand at the head of the table. The Mistress then glanced over and saw that her newest pupil, Sonya was watching from the shadows. Sonya had yet to know the pleasure of the Reapers' touch, but it was only a matter of time.

Mitza leaned over slightly and looked down into Lora's eyes. "Prepare yourself Tomb Raider. You may be delusional in thinking that the Horned Reaper will be raping your body only, but you will know in advance that you will wish that this was it. His powers extend beyond the physical realm and soon you will know what true torture is."

Lora looked up at the Mistress that she calls Red, "Is this what happened to you? Do you torture so that you can try to make others feel what he made you feel?"

Mitza smiled, "Oh no, I could only wish I could do what he does. Alas, my powers are merely in the physical realm."

Mitza straightened herself and added "One last thing. He has been known to get overzealous at times." Mitza spoke again, this time it was the strange language the Alvarid had used when he used his magic earlier and when she touched Lora's head, a warm feeling spread into Lora's body.

"The magic is a life preserving enchantment. If you begin to die, it will heal you completely, erasing any wounds you may have at the moment." Mitza said again with a smile, and then cast the spell four more times.

Then with sudden brutality, the Reaper stepped between the legs of the Tomb Raider and forced himself into her. Looking down, Mitza smiled as she saw that the woman strapped to the table had bitten her lip hard enough to make it bleed, but had not screamed out. Mitza knew how large the demon was. No non-altered human was as large or as thick.

The Demon paused for a moment when Mitza reached down and with a gentle finger, wiped a drop of blood from Lora's lip, brought it to her mouth, and licked the finger clean. Then she felt her jaw slack when the woman strapped to the table lifted her head and looked the demon in the eyes and through gritted teeth growled, "Is that it, flower boy?"

###############################

Alvarid was honestly surprised. He waited outside the doors to the Torture Chamber for nearly a full ten minutes and had begun to hope that the woman had surrendered before the Horned Reaper could begin. He did not have a personal interest in Lora, but he knew her value as a potential member of the Keepers Dungeon, and the Warlock had seen enough of the damaged souls that were left behind after the Reaper was done that he questioned her potential post-Reaper.

It started low after ten minutes, but before long, the woman was screaming. Alvarid sighed and walked away from the noise and to the sanctuary of his library. An imp would arrive if he was needed again.

###############################

When the Demon was finished, he stepped around the Tomb Raiders mangled body and admired his work. The healing spells were quite handy, as they allowed him to really enjoy himself over and over again while still leaving his play thing whole at the end. Right now, the woman was bleeding from several gouges all along her torso, arms, and legs that had been created by his claws. He was certainly that she was probably bleeding to death internally from the few broken ribs as well as the punishment his mating actions had done. When the Demon stopped by her side, he took one claw and worked under the collar bone of her right shoulder. When she didn't make a sound, he jerked and snapped the bone in have and pulled up out of the skin. The woman let and a strangled cry, coughing up blood.

"Thanks for the good time Darlin'" The Horned Reaper said with a chuckle.

Lora turned her head and spit out a mouthful of blood and weakly whispered, "Leave the money," then spitting out more blood and adding "on the nightstand."

The Demon suddenly laughed aloud, a sound that made everyone within hearing range cringe, and then with a quick motion he tore out the woman's throat. Just as her hear was about to stop, Lora screamed in agony as the last of the healing spells triggered. Lora's cry was broken up as ribs worked themselves out of her right lung, and her collarbone knitted together, the flesh pulling back together and the muscles and tendons reattaching forcefully. In mere moments, the Tomb Raider was lying naked on a table without a single scar left from the Reapers 'affections.'

With a chuckle the Demon looked down at the woman, "I honestly hope you keep that defiant nature. It's more fun that way."

Lora smirked, "You do all you want, and then leave my body completely whole and you expect this to be a way to alter my allegiance?"

The Reaper chuckled, and then laid a hand softly on the stomach of his most recent victim and Lora suddenly cried out in pain at the touch. "Yes, you are strong, and yes you bear not a mark from out play time. You forget all the effort and energy your body expended when the magic pulled you back in one piece. Your body has _never_ done what it has done today and every pore of your skin and ever fiber of muscle in your body is going to be sorer for the next week than it has ever been in your life. Everything that these two women do to you now will be compounded by that fact."

The red-haired mistress smiled, "You think hunger torture was bad when your body was trying to recover from two spikes in your elbows? Those moments will be fond memories by the time we're done with you."

The Reaper turned to leave and had just made it to the door when he suddenly turned and called out to the Tomb Raider, "Oh, and just a thought to keep in mind. Keep this up for a month, and at some point you're going to be fertile, and I haven't had a child in a _long_ time." The demon turned and left at that with a final chuckling comment, "Maybe should be called the Womb Raider then."


End file.
